me: http://losangeles.going.com/event-355166;Tom_Jones_Sheila_ELori: oh my god i SO WANT TO GO me: doesn't that sound awesome?Lori: man i wish i could go bahme: I'm glad I am not the only one who found that astounding Lori: how could anyone not find that astoundingme: it's like the perfect union of irony and showmanship they should get married and have babies Lori: i can only hope they do a stirring rendition of "what's up pussycat" together maybe they already haveme: or maybe he will sing "Pop Life"

It's been a while since I've been around, sorry for the lack of updates but it's been kind of a crazy year. Or two. Yikes! Uh... yeah, I had a bunch of jobs. Lately they've been more freelance write-y and less administrative assistant-y. Which is nice. I'm still working as the LA City Editor at Going.com, and also picked up some website writing on life insurance, a.k.a. The Dryest Subject on Earth. I get to write from home, while I watch 24 Season 6 in the background. It's fun, but a bit lonely. I've become unreasonably obsessed with my Netflix cue. Sometimes I wonder how I got to be 41 and writing at home in my underwear, but hey, what the hell. Livin' the dream, I say.

Life on the comic book front has been stupendously quiet. So quiet, in fact, when I went to Meltdown Comics to help shoot the "Y The Last Man" party a couple months ago, the owner greeted me with, "Hey, I know you. You used to write comics." I'm not sure which is more disturbing, the fact that it's a pretty fair assessment of my so-called career in comics, or the fact that, it's a pretty fair assessment of my so-called career in comics, and I don't really care all that much. I do have a couple pitches around to various comic book and animation companies, with folks who were kind enough to sollicit them from me, but other than that, my writing focus has really turned to screenplays over the last year or so. I'll let you know if anything happens, and that's about all the coy internet posturing I'm capable of on that front.

Filmmaking updates: "Guitar Player's Girlfriend" is winding down its festival run. It's been a good run. We haven't won any awards, but I got to watch my film at the Director's Guild and in a little church in Ireland. So I can't complain too much. We're still out to about four or five festivals right now, so hopefully it'll get a bit more play by the end of the year.

"All the Fish In The Sea" also got a good run this year, Charlie got some props in the LA Weekly for the directing on that one, and we took it to Sundance (and I took it to Cannes Short Film Corner this year). And "Gravity" (remember Gravity?) isn't even out the gate yet, despite being the first short we completed principal photography on. Believe it or not, I am STILL pursuing the music rights. The good news is, I'm finally talking to the right people, but the bad news is, once they find out how much we are paying, they take their sweet-ass time getting back to us. But in the process, I got to talk to Knox Phillips at Sun Records, which made my little rockabilly heart go SQUEEE! I totally geeked out on him and was like, "OMG, Sam Phillips was your dad, he's a legend," etc etc etc. He was quite gracious and I think kind of pleased that I knew something about Sun. Anyway, once that is sorted, it'll be up on MiniMovies and playing on a website near you.

I did get to go to Cannes again this year, and met up with an old friend of mine from Columbia who is now producing features. She's quite keen on a script I have been developing and wants to see a draft, so I've been up to my neck in that. The idea of directing a feature is challenging, but in a good way and I think this concept will lend itself well to a cheap, low budget HD shoot so I am excited about that.

At some point there's gonna be a website up at www.guitarplayersgirlfriend.com. (Probably sometime around the time the festival run ends, since I'm the one building it, but it can't be helped). If I have mastered Wordpress tricknology by that point, you might see something at www.janetharvey.com or, now that I've got the domain back, maybe even www.junglegirlstudios.com (if I'm feeling very ambitious, and can think of some way to wring money out of it). I'll announce any website action when it's ready to go.

Other than that, I think it's time for this livejournal to become friends-only. It's been a fun way to connect with "my invisible friends," as my friend Jackie calls them, but most of you have migrated over to Facebook anyway and I'm not seeing the point anymore. This started out as a way to track my workouts, ended up becoming a place for my drunken political rants (thank you, thank you) and somewhere in the middle shot to the top of search engine results for Janet Harvey. Then my parents showed up, so the party's over, you guys. No seriously, I've just run out of things to say on my soapbox since a) Obama is going to win in 2008 and b) I'm sober. Most of you probably won't even notice the difference, except that I might write more when I can talk trash and spill my juicy industry gossip (I have none, really) behind closed doors. So, yay! It's all good.

Oh, and I almost forgot the whole reason I was posting today - I am NOT going to Comicon. I spent all my money on the French Riviera. I know, tragic. Have fun, you crazy kids.

"This is Private First Class LaVena Johnson of Missouri. An honors student who nonetheless didn't quite know what she wanted to do with her life, she enlisted in the Army right out of high school in 2003 and was sent to Iraq, where she died. When the Army returned her mutilated body to her grieving parents as a suicide, her dad, Dr. John Johnson said to himself and the Army coroner, "Somebody murdered my daughter and you picked the wrong person to fuck with." Fucking right...

The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials.

The pink women of Banda shun political parties and NGOs because, in the words of their feisty leader, Sampat Pal Devi, "they are always looking for kickbacks when they offer to fund us".

Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor.

They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case.

Severin began her career at EC Comics in the 1950s as one of the great colouring pioneers, followed by a lengthly three decade stint with Marvel which included penciling, inking and colouring numerous titles. And for me personally, she is one of my inspirations to get into this industry.

And Don't Forget to Wiggle Your Toes You can thank Frank 151 for bringing this month's little-known holidays to our collective attention. I kinda wish my birthday fell on National Cherry Popsicle Day but, close enough.

August 1 is Friendship Day and National Raspberry Cream Pie DayAugust 2 is National Ice Cream Sandwich DayAugust 3 is National Watermelon DayAugust 4 is Twins Day FestivalAugust 5 is National Mustard DayAugust 6 is Wiggle Your Toes DayAugust 7 is Sea Serpent DayAugust 8 is Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch NightAugust 9 is National Polka FestivalAugust 10 is LazyDayAugust 11 is Presidential Joke DayAugust 12 is Middle Child’s DayAugust 13 is Blame Someone Else DayAugust 14 is National Creamsicle DayAugust 15 is National Relaxation Day and National Failures DayAugust 16 is Bratwurst FestivalAugust 17 is National Thriftshop DayAugust 18 is Bad Poetry DayAugust 19 is Potato DayAugust 20 is National Radio DayAugust 21 is National Spumoni DayAugust 22 is Be An Angel DayAugust 23 is National Spongecake DayAugust 24 is Knife DayAugust 25 is Kiss-And-Make-Up DayAugust 26 is National Cherry Popsicle DayAugust 27 is Petroleum DayAugust 28 is World Sauntering DayAugust 29 is More Herbs, Less Salt DayAugust 30 is National Toasted Marshmallow DayAugust 31 is National Trail Mix Day

It's part of DANCES WITH FILMS, which got a nice write up in this weeks LA Weekly, actually:

LA WEEKLYDances With Films

By Scott FoundasTuesday, July 3, 2007 - 6:00 pmWhen it began in 1998, Dances With Films felt like a suicidal novelty act — a film festival devoted to movies lacking so much as a single recognizable name in the credits, held in a city where celebrity is the highest form of culture. Attendance was spotty in those early years, dependant on how many family members and friends the selected filmmakers could recruit for their screenings. But under the stewardship of its indefatigable co-founder Leslee Scallon, Dances With Films has stayed the course. Now, as it closes out its first decade amid the major studios’ rapid colonization of the indie-film landscape, the festival feels more vital than ever. Here you won’t find any high-concept “calling card” movies made by schmoozy film-school grads lusting after a studio deal, or Oscar-baiting vanity projects in which some has-been matinee idol goes angling for “artistic credibility,” or anything starring a member of the Arquette, Tilly or Wilson clans. Instead, you will find more genuinely encouraging vital signs from the American independent film movement than could be detected in all of Park City this past January.

How about them apples.

Anyway, the screening time is kind of sucky but if you want to join us afterwards, We'll be at some bar around the corner celebrating so feel free to swing by.

That's right, fuckers! CANNES! FILM FESTIVAL! And it was as awesome as you think it was! Two things in particular are awesome:

1) I sold one of my shorts to a company that is distributing mobile content. (Licensed, actually, in a non-exclusive worldwide deal - but somebody is paying me money for my movie, is the point. Not a lot of money, but hey, it's better than a kick in the eye and maybe we'll be famous in Uzbekistan).

It's truly amazing to get a glimpse of how utterly different the rest of the world is from the Hollywood film industry. Every European country has its own fully-funded film council that treats film like any other art, and what they are looking for is the polar opposite of the Hollywood film. I met filmmakers from Poland, producers from Hong Kong, people from all over. I danced the night away. And I even got to see a couple of movies (though none in the Lumiere theater, sadly - our market passes put us rather low on the totem pole for invitations). But all in all, it was an eye-opening experience, a dream come true, a professional triumph, a huge party - in short it was everything I hoped it would be and I hope I'm able to do it again next year.

If I had one disappointment, it was this: the coffee. What's with this trend of pressing instant nescafe into the cafe au laits now? My god that is some awful coffee. You know something is wrong when I'm sitting in a cafe on the Riviera and wishing I could find a Starbucks. Shape up, France!

LES Death Watch, part whatever I hadn't expected such an impassioned response to the posting yesterday about the closing of Tonic (thanks, Dave). I guess it just goes to show that one person (or in this case, two) standing their ground and saying "we are not going to take it anymore" can inspire people around the world and perhaps turn a tide that seemed, up til this moment, inevitable.

If you are interested in following this story, check out Take it to the Bridge, where you will find news on their city hall press conference, and a petition to the city of New York to enact legislation to preserve NY's culture of music.

The wonder, as Rebecca Moore states in an open letter informed with a fine sense of outrage and irony, is not that they stood up, but that in a community so closely associated with resistance against the forces of real estate development, nobody said anything before:

After Tonic, a plea to aid music sceneBY JUSTIN ROCKET SILVERMANApril 18, 2007

"Ribot and another musician were arrested at a demonstration Saturday at the 9-year-old Tonic on Norfolk Street when they refused to stop playing and vacate the stage. The club had officially closed the night before, and workers were dismantling the stage as Ribot played."

Ok well, they didn't mention the other musician was the awesome Rebecca Moore, but still. Check out Ribot's wonderfully articulate interview in NY Magazine, too:

It looks like CB's, the Cocteau Theater and the wonderful alt.coffee are all gone, as well. So sad - especially about our friends at alt.coffee who took such good care of us when we were shooting up the street at Accidental CDs (which is also gone). Manhattan continues its slow march toward becoming a pedestrian park for lawyers. I hope all those sterile "investment properties" are worth living in when there's no culture left.

Sorry to have been out of touch for so long - so much is going on that by the time I get to thinking "you know I should mention that on my blog," three more things have happened and Charlie's already posted the pictures and I'm like "fuck it, I'll get to it later" as I sink, muttering, under a pile of press kits and postcards. But among the most pressing things I have to communicate to the world, is the following:

Good news! "Guitar Players Girlfriend" got into the Silverlake Festival!